Broken
by The unwritten promise
Summary: If you break a mirror the shattered pieces will fall and collect. You can look forever and gather them all up if you want to. But when you piece them back together the cracks will still be there. Deep and black. Face it, Axel. He's broken. You were too late.


The room was cold. So cold that as he lay there, his arms fastened to the side of the table with metal chains, he could see his breath frost against the freezing temperature. It was bright. Brighter than any sunlight could have been. His body hurt. And as he lay there, listening to the dull drone of a beep somewhere in the distance, he found himself breathing unsteadily. Swallowing hard, he felt the metal close about his neck, preventing him from looking around as the clogging stench of disinfectant drowned his lungs slowly.

He was afraid. Petrified to the point where he could feel the prickling sensation on his arms tingle when his hairs stood on end. A tear left his eyes and he found himself growling and pulling at the bindings hard, desperate to break free. But he couldn't remember why. Everything. Every single detail of his life. It was gone. Wiped out and lost. But the pain was unbearable. So bad it broke him and tore him down, turning him into a vicious animal inside.

Closing his eyes, he tried to ignore the artificial light and breathed hard. He was afraid. But of what? He remembered fire, and a voice. A voice he had come to hate. But whose was it? Delving deeper he uncovered a pure source of rage. An uncapped bottle that was ready to burst. Wincing, he ignored the pain and forced the bottle back down into his heart. And that was when he stopped moving, stopped breathing, and listened.

There was nothing. No heartbeat. No thump. No rhythm. Just emptiness.

Frowning, he felt the panic return with a vengeance as he opened his eyes. He was heartless. Completely devoid of the most important organ of the human body. Or was it just hiding from him like his identity?

Before he could question it further a voice broke through the silence on his right, bringing him back to the fake world as he snapped his eyes opened and growled.

"Rox? Rox, you okay?"

That was it. The voice. The voice he hated so much he wanted to rip the tongue from whoever was speaking. Snarling, and still unable to see who it was that was talking, he struggled hard against his bindings and felt the steel rattle against whatever he was lying on dangerously. The voice inhaled deeply and tried again.

"Roxas, it's okay. You're safe now. We got you out."

Roxas struggled harder, wanting to destroy whoever it was that was making him this terrified and hurt. When he finally realised how useless it was he stopped struggling and panted, staring up at the white ceiling and blinking away the liquid that fell. He was like a trapped wounded animal. Unable to attack. Unable to defend.

A soft touch smoothed its way along his arm and Roxas inadvertently whimpered, shrinking in on himself as the words left his mouth before he had time to think about them. So long had he been subjected to his mental state that his body no longer required his brain to tell it how to act. "Please…." His voice was scratched and broken, coming out hard and rough as if it hadn't been used for a long time as he closed his eyes tight. "Please, I'm sorry. I won't run anymore. I promise."

The words were desperate and a small part of him, a very miniscule part, hated himself for even thinking of using them. But he knew they would prevent the pain. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. But this time the man kept talking. His voice was as soft as his touch, but all Roxas could do was look for the knife he knew would be hidden somewhere.

"No-no Roxas, it's okay. You're safe, you don't have to run anymore. It's okay."

The soft touch was back on his arm and Roxas choked a little on his own saliva as it intensified in his mouth. He was sure that if he would have been able to move his body would have automatically cowered away from the voice, let alone the touch. "P-please. I-I'm sorry, I won't no more. I won't."

This time a different voice spoke. "Axel, I think it's time to leave. Roxas obviously isn't in the mood to talk. Maybe in a little while."

Roxas frowned at the name. It was familiar. Oddly familiar. And as Axel, the man next to him, let out a deep sigh, Roxas felt grateful to the voice for removing the touch from his skin. But before the two men left Axel's voice rang back to him one more time.

"I'll come see ya soon Rox. Bring ya some of that ice cream ya like. How's that sound?"

Roxas tensed. He just wanted the voice to leave.

There was the hiss of a mechanic door before the silence settled. Roxas didn't stop tensing though. He was too afraid that one of them could still be lurking in the room. Waiting to catch him off guard. For some reason, the isolation scared him more than Axel's voice ever could. And a small part of him wished the voice would come back and talk to him. Not touch. Just talk. Just to keep the monsters at bay for a little while longer.

Outside Axel sighed and shook his head. The lines under his eyes were heavy and his cheeks were flushed and red from the tears he had shed in the anxious hours he had been waiting. As the doors hissed closed behind him he looked up and out to the row of seats that were occupied. All of them filled with a sleeping face. His friends had all turned up the moment he had gotten Roxas out. And for a small moment Axel had been overcome with joy to think that maybe he had saved him. But looking at the blonde on the bed, the scarred and hurting blonde that had begged to him out of a mouth that had once been so confident and cocky, Axel feared he may have been too late. And it may have cost him everything.

He looked left as a hand landed on his shoulder. Following the hand up, he gave a small nod at Zexion and swallowed thickly as the silver haired male spoke in a soft monotone voice.

"Axel, I know it's hard, but Roxas is going to need time. He was treated badly, even for a Sub."

Axel frowned and spoke in a broken voice. "He didn't recognise me…"

Zexion shook his head. "No. He recognised you." When Axel raised an eyebrow in confusion Zexion began to explain. "Xemnas was clever, Axel. Roxas recognises your voice because it was your voice Xemnas used whenever he was hurting him. Torture is a horrible thing, Axel. Not just physical torture either. Mental and emotional torture can be extreme. Xemnas had obviously planned this." He gave Axel's shoulder a small squeeze. "Roxas seems to be stable. That's a start. His memory's gone, but for now I think the main issue we need to be tackling is his recognition of you as non-dangerous. After that maybe you can start to help him break down the wall he's built up about him. After all, you do own him. And he used to trust you more than anybody else alive." He gave a small smile. "I think once he recognises you don't want to hurt him he may recover his memories, and then we can start to work through them and undue what Xemnas has done."

Axel nodded slowly, looking over at his sleeping friends, some of them Sub's and some of them Owners. They had been with him through it all. And they were still there. Closing his eyes, he let his thoughts drift back to the blonde in the other room and shook his head. "Zexion…if you could describe Roxas in one word…what would it be?" He had asked his friends the same question the day he had bought the blonde and they had all given him the same answer. Now Axel found himself anxious to hear that answer again.

Zexion frowned, unsure how it would help the situation before he retracted his hand and sighed. "In a word? Broken."

Axel's world shattered about him then; landing on the floor like broken pieces of glass. If there was one thing he would have never described Roxas as when he bought him it was broken. Nodding his head again, he saw Zexion nod out of the corner of his eyes before his friend walked off to attend and treat his next patient. As Axel stood there, alone amongst his sleeping friends, he felt grateful to the retreating silver haired male. He had allowed him to bring Roxas to the hospital free of charge when it would have normally cost extra to have a Sub treated.

Leaning back against the locked doors, Axel closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath. Sliding down the metal, he crouched on the floor and curled in on himself, burying his head in his knees and covering himself with his hands.

"I was too late…"

* * *

Note: This is a test run for a slavery fic. Please let me know if you think I should continue this or scrap it.

Owners are the ones who are dominant over the Sub's. Each Owner is only aloud to own one Sub at any given time. The time period is futuristic as will be explained in the next chapter if I continue this.

WARNING: yaoi. Torture and abuse. Ugly imagery and views. If you do not like then please do not read.

Both straight and yaoi pairings will be involved.


End file.
